Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Hot Rod Forum : Hotrodders Bulletin Board forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name (usually not your first and last name), your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Automatically embed media (requires automatic parsing of links in text to be on).

There was a truck website (for old suburbans I think) that had copies of literature related to the Warner R7 and R11 overdrives, but I can't find it at the moment.

The "other" Overdrive unit commonly available then was the Laycock design; which was used in a lot of British cars (MG's etc). Then I believe AMC bought a large pile of them, and some of those ended up being modified for the first Gear Vendors units which we still see today.

12-08-2012 07:07 AM

timothale

google is your friend

There is some info stuff on E bay on warner overdrives. I don't know if yours was manufactured by or under borg warner's patent. There were 2 common overdrives, a 3 planet and the heavier 4 planet, depending on which car company, or engine was used. My old college Auto engineering text books are down south at our winter home. We came back north for thanksgiving and Christmas then will go south again.

12-07-2012 04:39 PM

Trunkmonkey

Cool! Can anyone link me to any kind of service breakdown for this 3 speed OD? I took it out and steamed it clean. Would like to replace seals/gaskets and need to know oil capacity. I see there is three pipe plugs on the side, i removed them and swung the tranny on its side and oil drained out all 3, but very little oil though...

12-07-2012 08:09 AM

timothale

T 10 Od

there used to be a kit on the market to use the Heavy duty borg warner W 11 4 planet overdrives on the back of a T 10 4 speed. . I have a Packard 3 speed overdrive in My roadster I built back in the 50's. The packaard has sychro"s on ALL 3 speeds, IS one of the strongest car transmissions ever made and Is Short enought.. I just want to get rid of the old hurst floor shifter I had to modify and need to find a 37 Packard top shift mechanism. I ran a Caddy LaSalle trans for a while, but no overdrive. The caddy didn't shift as well as the packard, but had better gear ratios. With 4.56 gears the front wheels still will come off the ground and the Od makes highway cruzing easier. I bought a Fred Hone kit and put an overdrive on the back of a ford C 6, but had a Hay barn fire , destroyed my tow van I was building the engine and trans for.

12-07-2012 07:42 AM

AutoGear

They're a great way to get the OD that everyone wants these days. If you wanted to make a Saginaw 4spd w. OD; you have to use the OD 3spd's mainshaft in order to use the overdrive.

12-06-2012 09:25 PM

Trunkmonkey

timothale... Thanks! Now we are getting somewhere.. Im learning this animal of a 3 speed OD. My car retains uncut wiring so i thought a pertronix conversion would be the cleanest upgrade without visually seeing change under the hood (cars got 30,000 actual).. I want the OD to keep working as it does (like the day it was made).

Thanks much!!

12-06-2012 08:05 AM

timothale

overdrive

There is a wiki on overdrive operation. The overdrive is controlled by a speed governor, the governor closes the contacts in the higher 20's mph. clicks the relay to send power to the solenoid that operates the pawl. a spring has to retract the pawl and it won't move unless torque thru the trans drops. The kick down switch under the gas peday grounds out the ignition coil so the engine dies for a couple seconds and the springs retracts. with a solid state aftermarket system you might have to put in a relay that cuts the power to the ignition when you hit the kickdown switch. Overdrives do not power shift, you have to let up on the gas to shift up and the kickdown switch cuts off the power to let it down shift. With the switch on the shift lever I still had to let up on the gas to up or down shift. Just like on a big truck.

12-05-2012 09:14 PM

starnest

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trunkmonkey

kills the ignition for a split second?

I'm intrigued by this question, I've never heard of this.
Why does it cut out?
If it does cut out for a split second, would that disrupt the HEI?

12-05-2012 08:34 PM

timothale

switch it

I always rewired my overdrives with a switch on the floor shift lever, Just like driving one of the bigger farm trucks with a 2 speed rear end, Just remember that you can't back up in overdrive. If you stop going up hill in overdrive. it won't roll backward. or if you park it with the overdrive on you will have to turn off the overdrive, go foreward a bit to let it shift out before you can go backward.

12-05-2012 07:50 PM

V8&4spd

You can hook up a HEI with 1 wire, just make sure it gets a full 12 volts, don't use a resistor like a points and coil. I remember seeing one of those 3 speed overdrive Saginaws and it had a solenoid. The tail of the 3 speed Saginaw should bolt right onto a Saginaw 4 speed, they do on a non overdrive transmission.

12-05-2012 07:37 PM

Trunkmonkey

Thanks for the insight! I assume i would have to run the 12v lead for the HEI from the same source as the resistor wire, other wise the power wont cut when the button is hit on the carb.?? The manual switch sounds like a good idea too.

12-05-2012 11:02 AM

V8&4spd

The overdrive is operated by a solenoid. Like Poncho 62 says, you can just make an on off switch. A HEI should not affect how the overdrive works if you use a switch to turn it off and on. You could hook up the three on the tree for the 4 speed and use a seperate lever to use reverse.

12-05-2012 07:02 AM

SSedan64

An HEI requires 12V+ to operate, you'll need to replace the stock Resistor wire which drops voltage to about 9V+ for the Points distributor.
Info >> HEI Conversion
Otherwise it should still operate as wanted for the Ignition cut for OD dropout.

12-05-2012 06:21 AM

poncho62

If you have problems with it kicking off, you could always add a manual switch to keep it on as you need it.

12-05-2012 06:07 AM

Trunkmonkey

Ive heard that too, never seen it in person though. What are the thoughts on the wiring for how the overdrive kicks down? Im leaning towards a pertronix conversion for the ignition..

This thread has more than 15 replies.
Click here to review the whole thread.